Rochester Land Trust Newsletter

January, 2004

In the News

Lincoln Rounseville 1927 – 2004

This newsletter starts with sad news – the death of Lincoln Rounseville in early January 2004.

Linc was born in Rochester in November 1927, graduated from Wareham High School (1945) and Massachusetts Maritime Academy (1949). He spent much of his life in the merchant marine. He and his wife Eileen raised their children to love their families and to love the land. Linc’s parents, Winifred & Ralph, sold land (at a bargain price) to the town for a ball field that we know as Gifford Park and his mother donated the land behind the ball field to the Wildlands Trust in 1994. The family donated other land to the Wildlands Trust, and to the Rochester Land Trust, Town of Rochester and to other groups.

Linc and his family made the decision that saving the land was more important than having the millions of dollars they could have received from selling it for development. We have the entire family to thank for helping preserve the rural character and livelihoods of Rochester.

Anna White, Linc’s friend from early childhood, wrote a poem in Linc’s honor that she read at his funeral.

Anna said “This poem had its very beginning upstairs in the Vestry next door to the Congregational Church where, 70 years ago, Miss Annie Thorpe's first graders started their educational journey. Several of them, Linc included, traveled the same road together through childhood and teen years until they graduated from high school twelve years later. Writing it has not been easy. All I can say is..."Linc, this one's for you!" I call it:

LINC, OUR "FOREVER FRIEND!"

There's a group of us from the old hometown who've been "Forever Friends!" You'd think life's crazy ups and downs might have brought this to an end,

Linc went to sea, and the paths the rest of us took quite often kept us apart.

Yet that never affected the strength of our ties, the ones that we kept in our hearts.

We delighted in the astounding news -- Linc was coming home to stay

And going to do the things he had yearned to do, those years he'd been away.

With his family working tirelessly, we saw the unfolding of his dream

For a brand new Rounseville house went up, down by the old millstream!

Then came the grand party for those near and far, with lobster and goodies galore

Mass. Maritime mates and neighbors and friends found their way to his welcoming door.

Surrounded by family he stood with such pride, the sight brought a tear to the eye

His face just beamed and it was readily seen, that Linc was one radiant guy!

Each day he kept at hand his "list" of the things he was planning to do

And if your name was on that list, you'd better make sure that was your plan too! On through sickness and ill health he pushed with incredible determination

Letting that "Lincolneese" sense of humor mask his most difficult limitations.

Notwithstanding the serious problems he had, he took two wonderful trips.

When back home from one he regaled us no end with all that took place aboard ship! Florida called, off he flew to visit Sonny & Shirl, and to bask in the heat and the sun. For his home folks he shopped, played cribbage -- a lot, and he had unforgettable fun!

Thank God for those memories we now hold dear, we count them all as treasure For Linc has enriched each one of our lives in ways we can't begin to measure.

His latest journey we can't share, his life on this earth has come to an end,

But when our turn comes we'll find him waiting there, for Linc is our "Forever Friend!"

Anna White January 2004

Ruth S. Kirby 1914 - 2003

Born in the house across from the old Highway Barn on Cushman Road, Ruth Sylvia Hartley lived her entire life in Rochester. As a teenager she often wore a Kelley green suit. Soon the workers at her family’s business, Hartley Sawmill, started calling her “Kelley”, partly because the suit was quite becoming, partly because it irritated her somewhat and partly because bestowing nicknames was second nature. “Kelly” was soon shortened to “Kell” and Kell she was known to everyone (except her mother who didn’t approve of nicknames.) Kell was very active in the church in the center of town and in the Woman’s Guild. She taught Sunday school and was its Principal as well. She raised a family of three children in a house she and her husband, George Kirby, II, built next to the one where she was born. As the family grew with the addition of grandchildren, she gathered them home each Thursday night for supper served with large helpings of love, support, wisdom and much humor, often provided by George who loved pranks. All the while, Kell worked as bookkeeper in George’s family business, George Kirby, Jr. Paint Co. which has been a supporter of Rochester Land Trust from its beginning. Kell passed away this past fall. Rochester Land Trust would like to acknowledge this stalwart native of Rochester whose life made the words “Born in Rochester, lived in Rochester, died in Rochester” a declaration of quiet pride and to thank the family and friends who remembered her with gifts to the Land Trust.

Contributed by Kell’s niece, Norene Hartley

Mayflower Bank Pledges $10,000 Toward Land Protection

The Rochester Land Trust is pleased to announce that the Mayflower Bank, an anchor business in Rochester’s Plumb Corner, has pledged $10,000 to the “Mattapoisett River Valley Aquifer Project.” This 442-acre land protection project, spearheaded by the Coalition for Buzzards Bay, helps to preserve drinking water resources used by residents of Fairhaven, Mattapoisett, Marion and Rochester.

The land is owned by the Rounseville family, lead by Linc who is mentioned above and his sister Ann Poland, who have given, sold at bargain rates, and sold conservation restrictions on hundreds of acres to help protect water and Rochester’s rural character.

Eastover Farm

The Massachusetts Land Conservation Trust (MLCT), a subsidiary of The Trustees of Reservations, acquired 19 acres in Rochester and 66 acres in Marion in 2003 and is scheduled to acquire another 170 acres in Marion in January 2004. About 200 additional acres will be protected by a conservation restriction at that time. In February, MLCT is scheduled to acquire, with the Town of Rochester, 152 acres with conservation restrictions on 101 more acres. The final acreage would be acquired in December with the assistance of state funding. The project will preserve nearly 800 acres and provide public access to the farm in Rochester and to hundreds of acres of woodlands in Marion. In 2003, the Town of Rochester approved $1,750,000 for the project. To date, The Trustees and the Rochester Land Trust have commitments for $3,100,000 for the project from many individual supporters and private foundations, the Marion Open Space Commission, and the Massachusetts Department of Food and Agriculture. We are within $95,000 of reaching our private fund raising goal.

If you or friends are interested in contributing to this project, please call Steve Sloan at the Trustees of Reservation:  781/ 828-9524. You may contribute online at www.thetrustees.org.

Massachusetts announces self-help grant to help secure Eastover Farm

On Jan. 21^st Environmental Secretary Ellen Roy Herzfelder announced Commonwealth Capital grants to preserve agricultural land and open space. Senator Joan Menard and Representative Bill Straus joined her in press conference at Eastover Farm on a brisk, but glorious, sunny day. The self-help grant to Rochester is a result of an application completed by the town last summer. For six months, we thought there would be no funding from this source and so were very pleased that the Commonwealth decided to continue in its long history of land protection and to grant the town $212,500 toward the Eastover Farm project. Many thanks to Laurell Farinon for her hard work.

Save these Dates

Sunday, February 29^th, 2004

The Wildlands Trust of SE MA and the Rochester Land Trust are sponsoring a walk on Teal Farm – land permanently protected by a Conservation Restriction. Meet at Town Hall at 1 p.m. and we’ll walk over the river and through the woods. There are baby lambs… Sturdy shoes required and be prepared for uneven paths and wet areas.

Wednesday, March 31^st, 2004
The Rochester Land Trust will have its ANNUAL MEETING on the last Wednesday in March 2004 at the Fellowship Hall of the Rochester Congregational Church. Join us at 6 p.m. for a potluck dinner.

Natural History

New Books at Plumb Library

The library is a great place to browse for some interesting titles about plants, animals or habitats. Some of the newer books at the library include Mammal Tracks and Signs by Mark Elbroch, (be sure to look at the fisher and river otter, both of which have recently been seen in Rochester!); Dragonflies of the World by Jill Silsby (they may look alike when they are darting by, but boy are they different frozen in excellent photos); The Founding Fish by John McPhee ( a whole book about shad, an anadromous fish like our herring); and finally, Swampwalkers Journal A Wetland Year by David Carroll (a perfect title for anyone who has walked beyond their backyard into Rochester's most abundant habitat). Check out these and many other great natural history books from the Plumb Library on the Common. Winter is a great time to read and get ready for spring walks!

Special Places

Russ Keeler: Ever since my wife and I moved to Rochester 3 years ago, people in town have often asked us “where are you from?” At first we went into a lengthy explanation of the places where we each lived since we were in high school. Realizing that was too involved, we next told people that we were from Bourne, where we lived for two years, but were soon embarrassed to find that some people in Rochester knew more people from Bourne than we did. Now, our answer is that we are from Rochester. Before now, we did not really have a place that we could call home.

We moved here because we wanted a good place to raise a family, a place where we could get to know our neighbors, a place that we could all call home. We also wanted a place where there were still large open fields and dense woods, clean air and water, and abundant nature. After six months of searching, we found our ideal spot on Vaughan Hill Rd, an old farm with a renovated farmhouse. The land has both fields and forest, and 100 acres of cornfields lie directly across the street. And fortunately for us, much of the surrounding land was, or will soon be, in permanent conservation. This is our favorite place.

Everything we see or do here depends upon the season. In winter, we are in the woods more than at any other time of the year. There are paths to be cleared, firewood to be cut, and antlers to be discovered. If we are lucky, the ground, which is wet in many places for much of the year, will be frozen, and the cold will keep the dreaded deer ticks at bay.

Sometime late in March, typically during a warm, rainy night, we will hear the spring peepers, and if we go into the woods with a flashlight, we may see the wood frogs and spotted salamanders emerging from their winter homes, heading towards vernal pools to lay their eggs. Later in spring we peer into the pools to locate the clusters of eggs, or to watch the tadpoles scrambling to find the pockets of sun warmed water. Spring presents other wonders to behold: apple blossoms and orioles, the fragrant Russian olive, the reemergent asparagus bed, and so much more. We always make sure that we don’t miss the precious few days in May when the migratory birds return and the still bare trees actually allow us to see them. Last year we saw rufous-sided towhees, great crested flycatchers, and warblers of a type we can never seem to agree on. In the fields we saw kingbirds and bluebirds, and hope that they build a home in one of our nest boxes, though the tree swallows usually get there first.

As spring turns into summer we are consumed with work around the house and gardens. We hear the forest more than we can see it, especially at night, a cacophony of various screeches, hootings, and buzzings, many of which we have not yet identified. The coyotes are here one week and gone the next. We wake to hear the pups all crying in unison and then stopping as if on cue. During late summer and fall we collect and process nature’s bounty, from both what we tend and what grows without our help: black raspberries in July, blackberries in August, followed by the blueberries. Later in September we collect wild grapes. They are too tart to eat raw but, with some of our fresh apples, make a wonderful wild tasting grape jelly. The deer emerge from the woods at about this time, gorging themselves on pears and apples. Once those are gone, they turn to some of our cultivated saplings and shrubs, much to our dismay. Fortunately they disappear back into the forest with the start of hunting season.

I think people in Rochester ask newcomers where they are from because they have such a strong identity with where they live, and perhaps assume that people from elsewhere are equally fortunate. In the past, my wife and I chose our place to live based upon our priorities in life: work or school. Now those things are secondary, and what is most important is where we live and raise our family. That is why we now live in Rochester.

Do you have a Special Place in Rochester? Would you tell us about it? Send your contribution to RLT, PO Box 337, Rochester MA 02770, fax it to: 508/763-2640 or e-mail to: sbptrsn@comcast.net

Join the Rochester Land Trust! Cut here and send it in!

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Rochester Land Trust 2004

PO Box 337 Membership Invitation

Rochester, MA 02770

Life Member $1000

YES, I want to protect Friend of Rochester $250

Rochester’s rural character Supporting Member $100

and natural beauty. Business Member $ 25

Family Member $ 15

Individual Member $ 10

Name ______________________________________

Address ____________________________________

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Telephone __________________________________

Rochester Land Trust NONPROFIT ORG

Post Office Box 337 STANDARD A

206 High Street ROCHESTER, MA

Rochester, MA 02770 Permit No. 12

ECRWSS

Postal Patron

Rochester, MA 02770

Rochester Land Trust Board of Directors 2003-2004

President: Maureen Sperry Vice President: Susan Adams
Treasurer: Michael Costa Clerk: Susan Peterson

Mary Bessey Richard Cutler Laurene Gerrior Russ Keeler Norene Hartley

Daniel Kennedy Robert Lawrence Gil Lafrance Rod McCollester